With each passing year, the size and complexity of computer networks increases greatly. It is now common to have networks that link thousands or tens of thousands of devices. As networks get larger and more complex, network monitoring and network management becomes more complicated, and effective customer service management becomes more challenging.
Network management systems in networks that do not have that many linked devices are usually based on a display that shows all of the networked devices. For larger networks, however, using such a network management system is cumbersome. For example, a display that shows all of the devices in a network with ten thousand devices may take a long time to display and may be too complicated to easily understand.
One solution to the problems presented by large networks has been to use network management applications that provide views of the network/network elements by grouping. Grouping of network elements is either done manually or displayed automatically based on specific technology and/or span of control for a given element or network management application. Groups are also commonly formed based on the physical location of particular elements.
While grouping may simplify network management to a certain extent, customer service functions (e.g., customer reported trouble resolution, repair processes, advanced response desk functions, etc.) remain inefficient due to lack of being able to quickly focus on the possible problems being experienced by a specified customer using a specific service.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for efficiently retrieving and managing network configuration, fault, and performance information for only those network elements which support a specified customer service based on customer service provisioning data and service level agreements.